Test Launcher -->

Test Launcher takes some input and tries to figure out what test you want to run. It makes running tests on the command line much easier. Test Launcher works with Minitest. RSpec support is in its infancy. You should try it and let me know!

Usage

Let's suppose you want to run the test test_name in your blog_post_test.rb.

Without Test Launcher, you might type this:

ruby -I test test/models/blog_post_test.rb --name=test_blog_name_thing

But with Test Launcher, you can just type this:

test_launcher test_blog_name_thing

#=> ruby -I test test/models/blog_post_test.rb --name=test_blog_name_thing

What if you want to run a whole file? Just go for it!

test_launcher blog_post_test

#=> ruby -I test test/models/blog_post_test.rb

What if you just have the class name for the test?

test_launcher BlogPostTest

#=> ruby -I test test/models/blog_post_test.rb

But what if you aren't specific enough?

test_launcher test_blog_na

#=> Found 10 test methods in 3 files.
#=> Running most recently edited. Run with '--all' to run all the tests.
#=> ruby -I test test/models/blog_post_test.rb --name=test_blog_name_thing

What if you are very specific?

test_launcher /Users/username/code/my_repo/test/models/blog_post_test.rb

#=> ruby -I test test/models/blog_post_test.rb

Inline Gems

Test Launcher will automatically move to the correct subdirectory in order to run the tests. For example, if thing_test.rb is within your inline_gem, you can run:

test_launcher thing_test

#=> cd /path/to/inline_gem && ruby -I test test/thing_test.rb

You don't have to run Test Launcher from the root of your project either. It will figure things out.

Spring preloader

Test Launcher will check for the spring/testunit binstubs. If they are found in the app/gem/engine it will use spring:

test_launcher springified_test

#=> cd /path/to/app && spring testunit test/springified_test.rb

Test Launcher will not use spring if the DISABLE_SPRING=1 environment variable is set.

Installation

To install:

gem install test_launcher

Under the hood it uses git to search for files and to grep, so it will only work in git repositories.

Setup

This gem installs one executable called test_launcher.

test_launcher test_name_to_find

For me, that's way too much to type, so I recommend adding an alias to your .bash_profile like so:

alias t='test_launcher'

# If you are using RVM, use this: (see below for more details)
alias t='NOEXEC_DISABLE=1 test_launcher'

Now you can just type t instead of test_launcher. Much nicer!

Usage

Test Launcher searches for tests based on your input.

Suppose you type test_launcher thing. It will run tests using this priority preference:

  1. A single, specific test method name or partial name

    • def test_the_thing

  2. Multiple test method names in the same file

    • def test_the_thing and def test_the_other_thing

  3. A single test file

    • matches on thing_test.rb

  4. Any test file based on a generic search

    • runs stuff_test.rb because it found the word thing inside of it

Any time it matches multiple files, it will default to running the most recently edited file. You can append --all if you want to run all matching tests, even if they are in different engines/gems!

RubyMine Support

When working with inline gems/engines, RubyMine has a hard time figuring out what test folders to push into the load path for Minitest. RubyMine also does not understand that in a project with inline engines, some of them may use Spring and some may not. When working with inline gems/engines/apps in RubyMine, you end up having to 'Edit Configurations...' many times a day. This is a bummer.

Test Launcher can be used from RubyMine to help alleviate these problems. Requiring the test_launcher/rubymine file in your run configurations will allow Test Launcher to fix RubyMine's test running to do what you want.

To use the RubyMine support:

  1. Open your project
  2. Click on Run -> 'Edit Configurations...'
  3. If you have any run configurations listed under 'Test::Unit/Shoulda/Minitest', use the minus button to remove them.
  4. Open the 'Defaults' and click on 'Test::Unit/Shoulda/Minitest'
  5. Under 'Ruby Arguments' change:
-e $stdout.sync=true;$stderr.sync=true;load($0=ARGV.shift)`

Replace it with:

-r test_launcher/rubymine
  1. Run a test. Test Launcher should report that it is hijacking the test and it will output the command that it has decided to use.

Debugging Support

Using Test Launcher to hijack your RubyMine run configuration should allow you to debug any test as well without issue.

Optimizing with RVM

By default, RVM installs a hook to remove the need to run bundle exec. When you run a gem command, it will search your bundle to see if that command is included in your bundle. If it is, it will run that version of the command. If it's not in your bundle, then it will fall back to the global gem. You can read more about it on rubygems-bundler.

Test Launcher is not installed in your bundle. This means that the time that Bundler spends resolving your Gemfile to check if there's a test_launcher executable in your bundle is wasted. For most projects, the amount of time this takes is probably unnoticeable.

On projects with lots of dependencies, this wasted time can be significant.

For example, in a large project, we get a nice improvement:

$:time test_launcher something_that_no_test_says
#=> Could not find any tests.

#=> real    0m2.214s
#=> user    0m1.407s
#=> sys 0m1.062s

$:time NOEXEC_DISABLE=1 test_launcher something_that_no_test_might_say
#=> Could not find any tests.

#=> real    0m1.412s
#=> user    0m0.745s
#=> sys 0m0.945s

I suggest that if you are using RVM, you may as well make this your alias:

alias t='NOEXEC_DISABLE=1 test_launcher'